Now and Forever
by Reshma Ramesh
Summary: A heart-felt conversation of the magical trio the day of the war, at the banks of the lake. Read the story as the divine bond rejuvenates as Harry talks to either of them after a long time.


**Now and Forever**

 _"And quite honestly," he turned away from the painted portraits, thinking now only of the four-poster bed lying waiting for him in Gryffindor Tower, and wondering whether Kreacher might bring him a sandwich there, "I've had enough trouble for a lifetime."_

Breathing easy for the first time in days, Harry climbed down the stairs and walked groggily. All he could see was the four poster-bed lying there in his dormitory inviting him to sleep and Harry was sure the other two felt the same as they too hadn't slept the entire night. They walked upstairs to their respective dormitories. Their heads hit the bed and they were asleep. The war seemed ages ago when Harry awoke the next morning after a solid 24 hours sleep. He found Ron still sleeping. He looked at Ron, whose face seemed to be swimming in grief even in his sleep. Harry stroked his hair and unable to stand there any longer he climbed down to the common room. It was empty and the only noise was the crackling of fire in the fireplace. He sat there for some time, then picked up a parchment and a quill, left a note for both Ron and Hermoine, and went out to the banks of the lake.

The lake glistened in the sunlight, that seemed so welcoming, but strangely Harry felt a deep chasm in his chest, just like the one he'd felt when Sirius vanished into the veil, not for once, but forever. He stared across the lake wondering so many things, hard things that had happened to him and to those around him, although he fought against them. He wanted them- the two souls who had trusted him, been with him through all ordeals and above all supported him through his tough times. After what seemed ages, he felt two heavy figures sit down on the ground, on either side of him. He looked at Ron, who was pain-stricken, yet who had come to meet Harry.

"Hey Harry, you've finally conquered him. Oh Harry! you did it!"

"Blimey yes mate.!" said Ron, who seemed so unnaturally cheerful, his attempts to hide his own grief were not unnoticed by Harry and Hermoine.

"Yeah true, but never without your help"

"Come on Harry. You handled Quirrel, the Basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets, you got through the Triward Tournament, and now you've vanquished Voldemort himself" said Hermoine so gleefully that Harry cast a sideways look at her, but she seemed as though she was determinedly not looking at him.

"Never without help" Harry said again, with a tiny trace of firmness.

"Harry! You did it all by yourself Harry. Maybe yes, Cedric hinted you for the second task. But other than that you did it all by yourself!"

"Did I?" he said, looking at Ron, realizing that he hadn't told them yet, the truth about the Gillyweed. The very thought made him want to explode. Everything was coming back to him. Dobby had helped him with the Gillyweed by stealing it from Snape's office. That squeaky little elf, whose tennis ball-like eyes bulged with excitement whenever Harry uttered a kind word to him, the elf who was always ready to do anything, any kind of help for him and for his friends, the same elf who on Aberforth Dumbledore's words, had come to rescue him and his friends from Malfoy Manor. The pictures by the Shell Cottage came back to him like high-quality photographs of the Muggle World. Dobby had the silver knife driven into his chest, he had collapsed in Harry's hands and died there with Harry's name as his last words. Tears threatened to overflow into his eyes, but he shrugged them away before either of them could notice.

"Dobby" said Harry quietly

"What?" said Ron and Hermoine in chorus.

"Dobby was the one that gave me the Gillyweed minutes before the second task."

"But Gillyweed is private stuff, isn't it Harry?" quizzed Hermoine

"He stole it from Snape's office"

Ron and Hermoine stared at each other and then at Harry.

"Hey! But, you did the maze all by yourself! You did Harry.!" exclaimed Ron

"Maybe yes. But you saw the result of what Hermoine keeps telling me about my 'playing the hero'! We lost a valuable Hogwarts student." As he said this, he clenched his fists tightly around the grass beside him.

"Harry it's not your fault!" said Hermoine pleadingly.

"I told him to take the portkey along with me!"

"Harry please..." pleaded Hermoine

"Merlin's Beard Harry! Come off it..! It's all done mate." laughed Ron.

Harry looked at both of them, especially at Ron, _How is he doing it?._ Harry had gone in front the previous night leaving Ron and Hermoine behind, and when he had heard Ron sit into his bed, Harry was sure he'd heard stifled sobs from Ron's bed. Ron had lost his own brother. The lad whose blood was in his veins too. Harry had felt the air empty his lungs as the horrible truth that Fred Weasley was no more struck him like the Cruciatus curse. Even so more, the last laugh that was stuck on his face even after Fred had breathed his last, came before his eyes. The Weasley twins were Harry's favourite (apart from Ron) among the Weasleys. They'd always made everyone laugh and during Umbridge's tyrannical reign, they'd been his make-him-laugh people. _I'll meet the Weasleys later. I will._ He wanted to and then his head had hit the pillow and everything had sunk into peace.

"Looks like you've both developed a bit of hide-it-from-Harry thing. Ron do you think I am not observing you..? I'm sorry Ron but you're not good at it. YOU ARE NOT.." said Harry, "and you, Hermoine , your determined stare away from me. I'm sorry but this doesn't work with me. 7 years is quite a period to know both of you quite well. Get it? ". It was the first time in days that he'd lost patience with Ron and Hermoine. He couldn't stand them being so unnaturally cheerful while going through their own trauma. It was searing into him like knives. He stared from Ron to Hermoine and back.

Hermoine looked away unable to bear the intensity of Harry's agaze but Ron looked straight at Harry, into his eyes, the numbness of pain clearly etched in his eyes. He couldn't remember when he and Ron had last stared like this at each other. Everything had gone silent for a while.

Harry got up after the eerie silence between them and stared at the lake once again, at the opposite banks where both he and Sirius had collapsed 4 years ago. Hermoine walked over to Harry and held his hand in her palms.

"It's all over Harry. Nothing is going to trouble you anymore. You've done it Harry. " she said gently

"Hermoine, I wouldn't have done it all by myself. Both of you, I can't seem to find..." his sentence was broken off by Ron.

"Oh Harry.. stop being so..."

"So? Modest..? No Ron, I'm not.. Allow me to speak..."

Both of them looked at each other, but obeyed. They knew Harry needed a vent. A very bad one to reduce the bleeding of pain that had been tearing his chest apart.

"You, Ron, might remember very well, our first trip on the Hogwarts Express. We shared a compartment. Well, did I then know that I'd found a friend for life? No...I think not". He was now looking directly at Ron. Ron opened his mouth, but closed it immediately. Harry continued "Later that year, we passed through the trap door and, the wizard chess as you might remember very well. Ron, you sacrificed yourself right then. Leaving you there, though unwillingly, we, Hermoine and I, went past. Then Hermoine.." he said now, looking directly at Hermoine, " you urged me to go ahead with it when it came to solving the riddle and getting past."

Hermoine and Ron looked at him, nodding. They'd let Harry talk, however long he wants.

"Then the Chamber of Secrets was opened the following year and people called me the heir of Salazar Slytherin, taking into account only the fact that I could speak Parseltongue. Those days were sheer hell and honestly, I wouldn't have made it all without you both. Then, Hermoine, you were attacked, petrified in the hospital wing. As we sat in the bed by you, there you were again holding a paper and leading us in the right path." said Harry, who was looking at Hermoine directly in the eye now.

Harry was now hurling stones into the lake, which formed ripples adding to the beauty of the morning.

"Then when it came to saving Buckbeak and most importantly.." Harry stopped short and stared. He felt his insides clench so tightly, that he seemed unable to breathe. He gulped down and continued, "..Sirius, again you were with me. The Triwizard year.." as he said this, he closed his eyes, feeling his heart swell with pain. He looked around at them. "I've always known, Ron, that you'd want to come back and, trust me, that was probably another stimulant after my clearing the first task and later after coming out of the maze..."

"Harry, please..."

"No Hermoine, I need to talk"

"Ron, you and Hermoine, you realize how much all that meant to me? "

"Come on, mate..you're our best friend..why..."but Ron didn't finish and was silenced by Harry's look.

"If the Triwizard was agony, the next year was nothing short of turmoil. You both stood by me through all my anger. I'm really sorry, Hermoine, Ron. I've been hard, terribly hard..." said Harry feeling terribly apologetic.

"It's ok mate" said Ron as he put his hand around Harry's shoulder when Harry came and sat down beside Hermoine who was already seated by then, but Harry was not listening to Ron. He was too possessed by what he had to tell them.

"...and after what happened at the Ministry that year..." Harry stopped again as the deep vacuum filled his chest once again and his godfather Sirius's last laugh echoed in his ears. He continued, " your letters were what that kept me going throughout the vacation, and then I received Dumbledore's letter and that very year end, we lost that noble man who'd always been a guiding light and a living idol to us." The calm face, his crooked nose, the twinkling blue penetrating eyes and the mild firmness in his voice which always signified finality made Harry feel suddenly very guilty for being angry with him and suspecting him to be a liar when Rita Skeeter had published her book _The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore._

Ron and Hermoine sat listening quietly, sometimes nodding and at times, Harry, at times, spotted Hermoine frowning with her eyes glazed. He looked at her. The girl who'd never left his side no matter how angry or abusive he'd got. He felt sorry.

"We were left with a mission- _Find the Horcruxes and finish Voldemort._ Those sacrifices you'd made for me before we parted to the Grimmauld Place. Your parents in Australia, .."he said looking at Hermoine, "...and you dying of spattergoit." now looking at Ron. "You never had and will never have an idea about how much it all meant to me."

Harry was once again walking up and down and the other two too, were standing by now. Suddenly they all fell silent. The only sounds were that of the air brushing past the trees and across their faces. The sun was well up by now, bathing the entire lake golden. They lived in the silence for what seemed ages. Then again, Harry said, now speaking only to Hermoine,

"Hermoine, I can't seem to put enough words for you. I've been awful with you at times.. Too awful for words, like when you accidentally broke my wand in Godric's Hollow and many other instances. Still you'd stayed with me, ALWAYS..."

"Harry..."

It was not Hermoine but Ron who was calling him now.

"I'm sorry mate. I shouldn't have done that, you know what I mean... you know the incident before..." but Ron didn't complete as Harry had hugged him and Hermoine so tight by now. They put their arms around him comfortingly, and rubbed his back. Harry felt himself shaking and suddenly realised that the other two were shaking too. Tears of love and friendship sprang from his eyes like an evergreen waterfall.

Coming out of the hug after what seemed a long time, he saw that their eyes were teary and red too. The tears slowly melted into smiles they realized how much each one meant to the other. Harry held out both his hands, Ron took one and Hermoine the other. It was more or less an Unbreakable Vow without performance. They started walking across the lake together, letting the silence fill their chests and make them happier. They knew it was meant to be.

 _The next task at hand,_ thought Harry as the Weasley home zoomed in before his eyes, and they slowly walked up to the castle to join the others for breakfast after a brief stroll by the lake.


End file.
